What It Takes
by BeautifulAlice
Summary: Sometimes it takes more than good luck to get rescued. When our favorite lab rat is caught in a store robbery outside LA, he'll do whatever it takes to get rescued by his friends and co-workers. CHAPTER FOUR UPDATED. Abandoned/Up For Adoption.
1. Midnight Moon

**CSI**

_What It Takes_

Demosthenes

Summary: Sometimes it takes more than a bit more than luck to get free from a cold-blooded killer. When our favorite lab rat is taken hostage in a store far away from Las Vegas, he will do whatever it takes to get rescue himself from the hands of the killer.

_**Chapter One: Midnight Moon**_

Greg Sanders parked his CSI jeep into the darkened parking lot of a nearly cleaned out Gas Stop/Store. The lights were on, but they were dimmed, as though there weren't anyone really working there. There were many differnent things that seemed a bit off, but Greg wasn't really paying any attention. He was already tired from the long drive, and seemed on the verge of collapsing to sleep. However, he was willing to pull a few more hours before pulling off the road to fall asleep. There was too many more miles to go before he got to his destination. Looking up at the moon as he crossed the near-empty parking lot, he smiled, thinking about Warrick's earlier joke about getting eaten out in the desert on a full moon by a bunch of wolves. Pushing open the door, he saw something that made him frown. Only one person was at the counter, but that wasn't unusual.

What was unusual was the fact that there was almost nothing on the counter, save for the cash register, and there was obviously the feel of fear in the room. Greg glanced at the woman behind the counter out of curiosity, wondering what the hell was going on. She was staring at him as though she had never seen anyone before, and had a pleading look in her eyes. He frowned, thinking. He remembered another jeep in the parking lot, a really dark greenish black color, but didn't think anything of it. Perhaps someone was robbing the store-

He reached towards his pocket slowly, as though he'd just thought of paying for the gas, even though he hadn't gotten any. He was about to punch in the numbers of Sara's phone, when something cold and hard connected with the back of his neck. He froze, and knew that he was right in guessing what was wrong here. He turned around, hands up, and said slowly,

"I'm not looking for harm. I'm only paying for my gas." Greg studied the man in front of him, taking in the outfit and what he looked like, in case he didn't take his cell phone, and could use it to describe him when he called for help later. The guy was wearing all black, but he didn't even have a mask on. Greg took a quick glance at the camera, and saw why. It was totally ruined, and barely hanging on from the corner of the ceiling. The stranger with the gun was staring at him, and with a look that Greg felt really uneasy about. The woman behind him was whimpering and obvisouly terrified of what might happen.

"Who are you, boy?" Immediately, Greg resented the fact that the stranger with the gun had called him _boy. _

_"I _am not a boy." Greg couldn't help saying. He regreted it almost instantly however, but was surprised when the stranger only smiled grimly at him.

"I'll give you one more chance to answer me truthfully. Or I will shoot her." He added the last almost casually...actually, it was more like lazily. Greg glared at him. "Who are you?"

"Greg Sanders." He answered, staring at the gun, thinking quickly. If he was the only person here, perhaps he could overpower him...

"Greg Sanders." The man repeated, as though trying the name out. "Interesting name."

"Gee, thanks." Greg muttered, inwardly cringing as he spoke. His mouth was going to get him killed if he wasn't careful. "Really. And who are you? First meeting usually warrent introductions." He had stolen the line right from League of Extroadinary Gentlemen, surprising himself. The man gave another slight smile...he sent shivers down his back.

"Oh, I don't think I'll tell. Maybe I will, if I take you with me. What are you doing this far out?" He asked. Greg looked at him warily.

"I was taking a camping trip, getting some relief from work." It was the truth. Only now, he was wishing that he had brought someone from work with him so that he wouldn't have to be in this situation alone. Greg smiled grimly at the thought of them joking about him getting into trouble even as he was taking a vacation. Looked like they were right. Greg hesitantly lowered his arms, as they were starting to get tired from being in the air for so long. The stranger didn't even look like he cared, but then he said something Greg didn't expect.

"This place have a storeroom?" He barked at the girl behind the counter. Greg turned slightly and saw her gulp as she answered,

"Yes, sir, it does. It's-right through there." She had paused and pointed towards the back of the store.

"Good. Perhaps I'll leave you there. I don't really need you any more. Or perhaps I should just leave you behind this counter with all the stuff." Greg had alarm bells ringing in his head. The man had said that he'd leave the girl here, which was fine with him, but he hadn't said anything about him. Greg was starting to get a very bad feeling about what was about to happen...or what was about to be said.

"What do you do for a living, Sanders?" The man asked, as though it was simple curiosity that made him do so. Greg hesitated, before answering,

"I'm a CSI." The man looked confused, before Greg added, "A Crime Scene Investigator."

"Of all the luck." The woman behind him was heard to mutter. The man with the rifle waved it towards her and said casually,

"Don't push yours, madam. Greg Sanders, I think I'll take you with me as a...precaution, and leave this little lady here. After all...I'm not much for women. Especially irritating ones like that one." He added with a small smile in here direction.

"I resent that." The woman at the counter muttered, annoyed, but also mostly fearful. Greg's heart lurched at the thought of being kidnapped, and his friends not knowing. That would leave him even less time to be rescued, and save this woman while he was at it. He wasn't really one known for his bravery, but to his surprise, he blurted out,

"Don't kill her." The stranger looked amused.

"I won't kill, or hurt, her. In fact, when this is over, she can call your people for all I care. All I was really interested in was picking someone up from here, and maybe getting a bite to eat. I was wanting some company, after all." He gave a small chuckle, and Greg stared stared at him in slight fear. "The only thing though, is that I think I might have to tie this one up before we leave."

"I promise I'll stay where I am." The woman muttered darkly. The man frowned.

"Are you pushing for me to shoot you, young lady? Heather, was that your name?"

"Heather's my name." She admitted. "And no. Just...please don't tie me up."

"Very well. I'll shut you in the bathroom, with the door slightly wedged with a chair. Will that suit you?" The man asked pleasently. The woman looked at him as though he were insane.

"Fine." The woman said annoyed. Greg was inching towards her, when a loud boom sounded, and a faint scream erupted from the cashier. Greg stared in horror at where the woman had stood a moment before, but had disappeared behind the counter. Greg turned back towards the man. Killer, he corrected himself. This man's now a killer.

"You didn't have to do that." Greg said, anger tight in his voice. He was surprised at how calm he was. The killer shrugged, and stated calmly.

"She was getting on my nerves. Now, why don't you come over towards me, and we can leave this place together?"

"As if." Greg muttered, crossing his arms over his chest. "You'll going to have to shoot me before I go anywhere with you." The killer raised an eyebrow.

"Now, there's no need to get all angry. She was simply pushing her luck in being able to survive by testing my patience. Trust me, if she were male, she'd still be alive. Males aren't to be wasted, but females can especially be." Greg had a wild moment's thought of how both Catherine and Sara would fly at him if they'd heard him say that, especially if they could get away with it. Then, he shook his head firmly, though knowing that it was useless.

"All right then, Mr. Sanders. I suppose that we can do it the hard way." The killer approached Greg, who started to move towards the coutner, but before he could back away far enough, the killer struck out with his leg-connecting solidly with Greg's chest.

"Hey!" Greg managed to say, before falling towards the floor, grunting in pain. He was pulled to by his hair on his feet. Greg cried out in pain, and said,

"All right! All right! I'll go with you!" For a brief moment of relief, Greg felt the killer let go. But then something hard connected with the back of his skull and he went crashing to the floor like a baby falling from it's mother's arms. And all he saw was black.

AN: Wow! That was longer than I thought it was going to be. Hope everyone liked it. Please leave reviews...please! :D


	2. In The Dark

**There Will Be Blood**

_Demosthenes_

**Chapter Two: **_In The Dark_

Greg slowly awoke to find himself in the worst situation possible. His hands tied with duck tape, his mouth not moving-probably the ducktape again. Greg wondered inwardly if the guy was a fan of it-and also his eyes not being able to see through the thick cloth that he felt. Which meant a blindfold. _Is there a reason why I'm always the one whose picked for these kind of things? I just wanted a camping trip! That's all...peace, quiet-solitude! Why me? _He grumbled to himself, trying to shift around to get comfortable. Picking a new spot that seemed better than before, he then noticed that the floor beneath him was moving. _What? What now? _He thought frantically, before he realized that everything was moving-because he was in a moving vehical. Scowling through the ducktape stuck to his mouth, he thought to himself, _I really need to stop watching horror movies on a Friday afternoon, just because I don't get nightmares..._

Of course now, there was every possibility of getting nightmares. He wondered if there was a way to block them out completely, if he got out of this situation. If he didn't..._Oh, don't go there! Where else am I supposed to go though? My friends won't be looking for me for a while...not for a week or two. And when they do start looking for me, it'll be because they need me at work. Unless Grissom gets loads of work earlier than he expected...I wonder if he'll still call me even then? _The vehical slowed to a stop, moving Greg backwards and whacking his head on the hard metal side, and then picked up again moving him back to where he had moved before.

_Ow! That was uncalled for! _He complained to himself, feeling stupid but otherwise not knowing what else to do. _There wasn't any reason for him to stop-unless we were at a stop sign, of course..._how ironic that a man who had killed a woman and kidnapped him would actually be obeying traffic laws. _But of course he would. _Greg suddenly realized. _He doesn't want to attract attention! Why else would he stop at a stop sign? We must be in a city...or at the very least, nearing one...I hope. But then again, we could just as easily be out in the middle of nowhere with no one to notice if I start screaming. This really sucks. _

Greg inwardly sighed, feeling the vehical slow again. This time, though, it stopped completely and he heard a door open and then slam close. _Well...I guess this is it. There's no escape..._Feeling a familiar grimness settle in, he waited for the trunk of the vehical to open and reveal his kidnapper's face.

**End Chapter Two.**

Author's Notes: Sorry this chapter is so short...but the next one's longer, and it's in Sara's POV for those who like her. There's more Greg angst on the way, and there's also another chapter of 'There Will Be Blood' coming up soon too. I'll try to update this one more often, but I'm still a bit stuck with the writer's block. I didn't really like this chapter a whole lot, but hey! It's better than nothing right? Please, as always, read and review! Thanks!


	3. Sarah's POV

CSI

**Demosthenes**

_What It Takes_

Chapter Three: _Waiting_

Sara stared into her computer screen, feeling the sense that something was wrong. Greg hadn't emailed her yet-as he promised that he would, whenever he had the chance. He'd recently gotten one of those kinds of phones that could text, e-mail, and do photos-really, it was the whole nine yards. It had everything you could want in one of those phones. Frowning, she decided to wait a bit before checking in on Greg again. Who knows? Maybe he was actually having a good time-and that was why he hadn't checked in.

But Greg had promised.

Gritting her teeth, she frustratedly shoved the chair she was sitting in backwards, and then headed towards the coffee machine. Greg had better e-mail her. If he didn't email her in the next five minutes…she suddenly felt worried, despite everything that the rest of the team had said, and what Greg had promised-about being careful. A lot could happen out in the wilderness. Perhaps Greg couldn't e-mail her because he didn't have his phone with him…having lost it or something. Maybe it was taken from him, and he just couldn't get into the town closest to him because he became lost. Maybe something attacked him, and he was laying near death, alone, in the dark…Sara shook her head.

She was being paranoid.

Just as she set down her cup of coffee, and reached for her own phone-Catherine stuck her head into the room.

"Hey. Want to grab a bite to eat? Grissom's inviting everyone to lunch before we get started on our next case." She offered, grinning. Sara hesitated. She really wanted to. But Greg…thinking it over, she finally decided that this would giver Greg the amount of time he needed to email her like he had promised too. And if he hadn't done so by the time she returned, _then _she would call him.

Hoping that she wasn't making the worst mistake in her life, she voiced her agreement, grabbed her purse, and followed Catherine out the door.

*

Authors Notes: Yeah, that was rather short wasn't it? Sorry 'bout that. Next one should be a bit longer. Going to try to finish this, so it won't be on the list of WIPs, because it's driving me nuts. I haven't had a chance to write on my stories in a long while, and now that I finally do, I have so many WIPs that they're driving me INSANE!

But this one will get finished.

Some day soon.

*


	4. Chapter 4

**What It Takes**

_Breathalittlelonger_

Author's Notes: I'm almost finished with this story-check out the bottom of this chapter for additional notes. Meanwhile, my other two stories will probably go up for adoption, if anyone wants 'em. I'll post details on my profile soon. Meanwhile, thanks for the reviews! They mean a lot!

Chapter Four: _Wilderness _

Greg's blindfold came off, and after that, his ankles were freed. His hands were still tied behind his back, however, and his mouth was still ducktaped shut. He also had an itch on his nose. He wondered if that was supposed to be ironic or not, but decided that he didn't care. Pulled out from the truck, he was set against a huge oak tree, with the fire across from him. The smell of oak was strong, as was pine. He was definitely out in the woods, somewhere. He wondered how far from the highway they were, and if there might be some way in getting back to it, and then getting back to the gas station. Problem was, even if he got to the highway, he had no idea which way to go. Glaring at the fire, he was surprised when his kidnapper spoke.

"I'm going to leave you here. I only took you for insurance, after all, in case the cops came after me. Since they didn't, and I'm sure that they're not coming after me for a while, I've built you a fire and stored some food away here for you. You should be able to make it back to the gas station. If not, all's the better, because then you can't rat me out. But I like you…you're interesting, gutsy…" He shrugged. "It's rare that I kill men anyways, so don't feel as though you're that special." He said, winking. Greg glared. He hesitated, looking as though he wanted to say or do something more, but then shrugged, and started back towards the truck. Greg realized what he was doing, and inwardly began to panic. He didn't have any of his camping material-how was he going to get back? The man must've noticed, because he added offhandedly,

"Oh, you should get yourself freed around morning, tomorrow, if you try hard enough. I left the ropes loose enough for you to do so. And there's a knife with the food, so you won't be totally defenseless. Just take your time, be cautious. Maybe you might make it back to wherever it is you came from." He added, smirking. Glaring at him openly now, Greg fought with the ropes. They were, indeed, loose, and he felt as though he could get himself freed…in a few hours. Staring hopelessly into the fire, he heard the man say before he left,

"I built the fire so that animals wouldn't come and attack you-you should be grateful, you know. There's so much that I could've done to make you're life miserable. Instead, I made it easier for you." Then, the truck door was opened, his kidnapper started the truck, and the vehicle disappeared.

Greg stared into the fire again, feeling bitterness creeping through him.

This vacation was turning out to be like one of his many different cases. Struggling with the ropes, he looked for the food packets, and realized that even if he had them, and even if he got free-he had no idea how he was going to get away from here.

He gave up, and settled more comfortably against the tree.

Alone in the wilderness, and tied up against the tree, in the middle of the night with the fire burning brightly, he decided that he'd take his chances.

He had a rotten headache, and his wrists were killing him. (He definately considered that to be ironic.)

He was going to sleep.

Even if something came up and killed him while doing so.

*

Author's Notes: That last chapter was shorter than I thought it would be. (sheepish look) Again, sorry about the shortness of the chapters, but it's turning out to be better than what I pictured, anyways. I'm debating on whether or not to go ahead and wrap this up-there's two routes it can go.

Choice A: Greg gets stuck longer in the wilderness than he'd thought, making him having to fight a wild animal, back track to the gas station while also avoiding his kidnapper-of which Greg originally thought that he'd actually left him like he'd said-but was really sticking around to see how far he'd make it.

Choice B: The other route is that Greg manages to free himself, find his cell phone among the food packages and knife, and wait till he has a signal so that he can call for help. The second one is shorter, but either of them can work. Guess what I'm really asking for is a vote: who wants it which way?

Whatever side has the most votes, wins! (Obviously.)

But if it comes down to it, I think I'll probably go with the shorter (that is, if the votes comes to a tie).

*


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